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What can a pair of 10x50 or 20x80 binoculars see?


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On 05/04/2016 at 08:05, kev100 said:

Hiya,

Download a copy of Stellarium, if you can, and input the specs for the binoculars you're thinking of choosing. You'll get a simulation of how a variety of targets will appear (not counting seeing conditions, light pollution, etc). The attached pic shows M31 (Andromeda galaxy) using 10x50 and 20x80 binoculars. The 10x50s can be hand held as they're pretty light, but the 20x80s will definitely require a tripod for steady viewing.

Kev

 

M31.png

I find this simulation interesting because I have a pair of Royal Astro 20x80 bins and the view of Andromeda looks nothing like either of the images above. Instead, what I see is a shapeless grey smudge. No central hotspot, no surrounding disk gradatuating lighter as you move outwards, just a featureless irregular smudge. Pretty much how it appears through my 3" classic refractor as well.

I reckon my London suburban skies are to blame. Stellarium needs a sky pollution filter to give more realistic simulations.

 

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I will give you the details on getting a copy of Stellarium. It is an excellent star-charting program that you set for your specific location, and it gives you a very realistic view of what's in your sky - assuming the clouds cooperate. Similar programs can run you several hundred $'s. But Stellarium is completely free. I'll now leave you a copy & paste edition of the links for the program, as well as two links to the full instructions. I'll also post a screenshot of how mine is set to show things I need. Not to worry though - yours will be much simpler until you start loading it with all the objects that interest you:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this link is the main page for downloading Stellarium. Choose which version is correct for your computer. Here you go:

http://www.stellarium.org/
 
As for instructions, the most current one's are posted in Wiki due to there being new features & functions being created almost daily. There is also a Pdf. that's almost up-to-date, absolutely enough 'up-to-date' in all needed ways. Here's the Wiki-Link:
 
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Stellarium_User_Guide
 
And the Pdf. is here:
 
http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/stellarium_user_guide-new.pdf
 
This should help you to find just about everything under the Sun.

_____________________________________________________________________________

All the best -

Dave

stellarium-113.png

Click on image for full-size image.

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12 hours ago, digital_davem said:

I find this simulation interesting because I have a pair of Royal Astro 20x80 bins and the view of Andromeda looks nothing like either of the images above. Instead, what I see is a shapeless grey smudge. No central hotspot, no surrounding disk gradatuating lighter as you move outwards, just a featureless irregular smudge. Pretty much how it appears through my 3" classic refractor as well.

I reckon my London suburban skies are to blame. Stellarium needs a sky pollution filter to give more realistic simulations.

 

Hi digital_davem, Stellarium only ever offers an approximation/simulation of what you can expect to see. Light pollution/seeing have a massive effect on the view you'll experience. From here in darkest Dorset, and on a good night, the view of Andromeda through both my binoculars isn't too dissimilar to that shown. It does vary with atmospheric transparency/humidity, etc, though. You can adjust Stellarium to take account of atmospheric conditions and light pollution ...

Kev

Screen Shot 2016-04-09 at 10.14.21.png

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On 09/04/2016 at 10:16, kev100 said:

Hi digital_davem, Stellarium only ever offers an approximation/simulation of what you can expect to see. Light pollution/seeing have a massive effect on the view you'll experience. From here in darkest Dorset, and on a good night, the view of Andromeda through both my binoculars isn't too dissimilar to that shown. It does vary with atmospheric transparency/humidity, etc, though. You can adjust Stellarium to take account of atmospheric conditions and light pollution ...

Kev

Screen Shot 2016-04-09 at 10.14.21.png

I've tried varying the light polution setting between 1 good and 9 terrible and I can't say I can see any effect of the view through Occular with it set up for my gear. Take jupiter for example. Throught my 3" f16 achromat using a 7mm eyepiece, I see the top and bottom equatorial belts as faint thickish lines. No irregularity, no spots or blobs, no colour and such low contrast that they are only fractionally darker than the disk.  Using occular on the most hostile settings, there is far more detail, colour and massive contrast, like it has been heavily sharpened in photoshop.  The main moons are big disks in occular but pinprick points in my scope. I don't much similarity at all between the view and the simulation, to be honest. Occular seems "glammed up" to me. 

 

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"Occular seems "glammed up" to me.

Fair comment. It's never going to show you exactly what you can expect on the night, but I do find it fairly accurate when compared with my dark sky viewing site.

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